Dmitry Bivol is one of the up and coming stars in the light heavyweight division. Though he hasn’t yet faced the best at 175 pounds, he’s beaten solid veterans like Sullivan Barrera and Isaac Chilemba, and he’ll have his first opportunity to take out a former titlist in Jean Pascal on HBO on Saturday.

At this point, we know Bivol (14-0, 11 KOs) is good enough to likely blast through Pascal (33-5-1, 20 KOs), who made four defenses of his light heavyweight title last decade but who has repeatedly fallen to the top-notch fighters in his weight class in recent years. The oddsmakers know this as well, considering Bivol is a -2000 favorite (meaning you’d have to wager $2,000 to win $100 on him) and Pascal is a +900 underdog.

Though we’re still waiting for Bivol to have the opportunity to face the top of the division—Eleider Alvarez, Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev, for example—or the other young potential stars at 175 pounds (Oleksandr Gvozdyk and Artur Beterbiev), Pascal will have to do for now. Here are three reasons to watch Bivol take on Pascal.

1) Bivol might be the best light heavyweight in the world: Now that Sergey Kovalev has lost again, it appears as though the man who beat him, Alvarez, and Bivol are two of the best in the 175-pound division. He probably won’t get much of a test vs. Pascal, and assuming Bivol wins, he wants to look to unify the rest of the division. Bivol owns one of the division’s four belts, along with Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev and Alvarez. And Bivol thinks he’s better than all of them. “I believe that right now I’m almost there,” Bivol told Sporting News. “I do have a hard test coming up with Jean Pascal. If I get through him then I believe that I will face the other champions and that will show that I’m the best guy.”

Things got a little bit tense between Dmitry Bivol and Jean Pascal at their weigh-in.

2) Pascal does have one big advantage: Here’s perhaps the only way Pascal can beat Bivol: By using his 13 years of pro boxing experience. During his career, Pascal has faced Kovalev twice, Alvarez, Chad Dawson, Lucian Bute, Carl Froch and Bernard Hopkins twice. He’s also a former unified light heavyweight titlist. Though his prime is behind him, the 36-year-old still has faith in himself. “You cannot buy experience. You need to live it,” he said. “You need to experience it. I’ve been in there with Kovalev twice. I’ve been in there with Hopkins twice. I’ve been in there with Carl Froch, Bute, with [Adrian] Diaconu. Like I said, this is something you cannot buy. He might be young, fresh, but I’ve got experience on my side.” Plus, these two have fought before: When Pascal was training for the second Kovalev fight, he used Bivol as a sparring partner.

3) Bivol will be pursued by TV networks: Assuming he wins in what will be one of the last broadcasts ever by HBO, Bivol should be a hot free agent for anyone who wants to broadcast him on their platform. According to RingTV.com, the DAZN streaming service—which most recently made a splash by signing Canelo Alvarez to a $365 million contract—wants to make a deal, and Showtime will likely pursue him as well. “We’re talking to every possible opportunity right now, we’ll have to make a decision after the fight,” Vadim Kornilov, Bivol’s manager, told RingTV.com. “Each network has a champion. There’s no particular lean toward a network. We gotta figure out which one of these guys actually wants to fight him.”

The latest on Joshua-Wilder negotiations: According to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, he’ll offer Deontay Wilder a two-fight deal—one in the U.K. and one in the U.S.—to take on Anthony Joshua. Wilder, of course, would have to beat Tyson Fury on Showtime PPV next week for that to happen, but it’s an indication that a Joshua vs. Wilder bout to determine the real heavyweight champion still is a possibility.

“If they are true to their word, on Dec. 2, if they beat Tyson Fury, we will immediately start negotiations and we'll see where we get to,” Hearn told Sky Sports. “[An] April 13 [fight] is easy, and it's a two-fight deal this time, the offer that we've made. One in America, one in the U.K., we cannot say fairer than that.

“We've got to do our best to try and make it happen, and we'll be doing that straight after the fight. We've been trying to do it for the last two months … We've probably got three weeks to make the fight. It's enough time, if everyone is sensible, but who knows whether they really want it deep down.”

After more than a decade in the newspaper business writing about virtually every professional and major college sport for publications like the Cincinnati Post and the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, I joined CBSSports.com and covered the NFL for five years. While doing so, I wrot...